Under the radar...

... that's where I've been. Stress levels are riding high around here, moving house over the coming weekend and the associated preparations being the major culprit, throw in some trips to research libraries I've had to make for uni, and my general background levels of hassle and it all seems to add up.

So I've been up for some mindless, calming knitting - of course a stockinette sock is just perfect for that, but doesn't make for great photos. Here we go nevertheless:

But wait! The photo tells us that this isn't as mindless a sock as it might be. It is in fact My-First-Toe-Up-Sock (TM)! Inspired to no small extent by My Knitting Manifesto (I've decided to be good, only once I finish the second sock will I cross off the item on the manifesto) I decided to give toe-up a go, and it makes the stockinette a bit more interesting to have new construction techniques to think about as well, especially when the person you are knitting for has size 11 feet (that'd be the boyfriend then). I've found it's gone quite quickly but I'm not entirely happy with this first sock of the pair. I used Toe Method 2 from this pattern by Wendy for the cast on, the cast on was fiddly but actually looks OK on the sock. I used the wrong kind of increases for the toe which doesn't look so good but I will remedy it on the second sock (I know they won't match then but the boyfriend is into function over form when it comes to his socks). I didn't want to do the gusset heel from Wendy's pattern so I used the short row heel from this Knitty worksheet. I've wanted to improve my short row heels since I knit the first one for my first RPM sock (yes the second RPM sock is still stuck in the second sock hinterland). This current short row heel turned out rather holey, so that is another thing I will try to improve on with the second sock of the pair I remember having read about this tutorial from misocrafty so I think I will try to follow it for the heel of the second sock. So there you go that's what I've been up to and what I will be doing in the immediate future.

As for further in the future I am still vacillating over both my summer holiday project and my Sockapalooza socks. Who knows, maybe they will in fact turn out to be one and the same thing - perhaps this is the sensible course (no wonder I didn't consider it before!)